Reflections and Goals: Goodbye 2017, Hello 2018!

Holy cow, y'all! It feels like I blinked and months have passed without a single blog post. I've got several projects to post about, but that's a post for another day. It's that time of the year for reflection and goal setting. Last year at this time, I was still a bit mentally and emotionally frayed from my divorce. I was learning how to be hopeful again and putting the pieces of my life back into order. And what a year it has been! I never imagined a more blessed and wonderful year!

Looking back, I'm more than satisfied with my year. I didn't think I completed a ton of projects, but I think that's because I didn't keep a ton of projects. I blogged about four commission projects (2 baby quilts, 1 king size quilt, and a laptop bag) and have one queen sized quilt I need to blog about still. I gave away or plan to donate four projects (2 baby quilts, a pillow, and a twin sized quilt), and have one baby quilt I need to blog about still. I kept three projects that I blogged about - a mini quilt, a pixie basket, and my Alison Glass 'Quilt With No Name' throw quilt. There were projects I didn't blog about, such as baby bibs and my passport wallet, but overall this was the sum of my finishes!


I've still got some WIP's, but I've really focused on trying to stay on track and finish what I've started. I've done a combination of stash sewing and letting myself buy some new fabric goodies. Even better, I've used a chunk of those new fabric goodies!

I absolutely loved making this Kite Flight quilt! I'm also pleased the recipients loved it as well! :)

My Dad likes this one as much as I do; I catch him snuggled under it with the dogs quite often!

The biggest quilt I've ever made, I'm still proud of finally finishing this king-sized beast!

Outside of my quilting world, several big things happened. I bought a (much) newer car earlier in the year. I went on a dream vacation and cruised with my friends to Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, marking my first big trip without any parents present! Hahaha! I was promoted at work, earning a sort of leadership position I never imagined being able to fill. The biggest 'big thing' that happened this year happened just after Thanksgiving though. I bought a house! If you follow me on Instagram, you're already privy to the news, but HOLY MOLEY! Y'all, I never dreamed I would actually own my own home. But I've been working hard and saving and things fell into line and, man, God is good. :) My family and I are doing some renovations (another blessing is a Dad that's practically a contractor!) and Elvis and I's little castle will be ready in the spring! Complete with a fenced in yard to play in for him and a sewing room to play in for me! :)

Oh, how I miss those beautiful waters!

Like I need an excuse to share a picture of my best guy. :)

Last year, I simplified my goals to 3 things: Choose Joy, Treat Yo'self, and Take Care of Yourself --- it was a year of focusing on self-care and learning to just be. Overall, I feel like I worked hard on these goals and kept good focus on them throughout the year.


Looking forward, I was having trouble thinking what goals I wanted to write down. I struggle to make quilting specific goals normally because my interests and plans change so much within a year. But I think these are a good overview of what I would like to see done this coming year.


1. Choose Joy - I am writing this one down again because it is such a central sentiment of my life now. Even when things are hairy and stressful, I make it a goal to choose joy. It's easier said than done, but it's amazing how things change with such a simple shift in attitude.


2. Serve Others - Over the past year, I have really been praying and asking God to use me how he wants. And I've really felt called to serve others, I just don't know how. So I'm making it a goal to keep my heart open to helping others. I want to make people feel loved and pass on loving service like it has been done for me. Whether this is baking cookies for a neighbor, hosting a movie night for friends, or tagging along and helping with a service project, I want to make a difference in my community, no matter how small it may be.


3. Continue Learning - I love learning. I never realized that fully until I finished up my college coursework, but I love it. So I hope to pick up more quilting skills, but I also like picking up other skills, whether that be gardening, cooking, foreign languages, or whatever strikes my fancy. If I can swing it, I'm really hoping to learn how to play the ukulele this year!


I think I will leave it at 3 goals again, it worked well for me last year. It's not an overwhelming amount of things to think about, but these goals pack a lot of punch! I'm excited to see what this next year holds and hope to share it all with y'all!


Hope y'all have a Happy New Year! I'm linking up with Yvonne over at Quilting Jetgirl!

Where to Next?

After finishing my Supernova, I took a few days of piddling around to recharge. I fiddled with my scrap vortex stuff, but I didn't start something else right away on purpose. As much as I love sewing and quilting, I don't want to burn myself out. I took some time to read and think about where to go to next.

I'm pretty new at quilting. Unlike some, I'm still trying to figure out where I am with it. Some are strictly modern, some are strictly traditional. I have a feeling I'm somewhere in between, though I do like modern designs a bit better I think. So I've been browsing through a couple of quilting books from the library (I had to resist checking out Quilting Modern again! Lol).

The first book is called Quilting Happiness. There are a lot of ideas about being happy with sewing, finding inspiration, and other creativity ideas. I checked it out more for the patterns, but it has still be a fun read. There are actually several patterns I like out of this one! These two are my favorites I think. :)

I really like this take on a star quilt! The varying sizes really sold me on this one, as well as that gorgeous quilting!

The thought of sewing curves sort of terrifies me, but that's sort of why I want to do it. Snowball quilts are really interesting and pretty, I'd love to tackle one after I buck up and go for it. :)

The second book is called Modern Quilts from the Blogging Universe. I was actually excited to find this one because there were a few names I recognized right off the bat (Cluck Cluck Sew and Blue Elephant Stitches!) There were some pretty cool quilts in this one, but I narrowed down my current interest to these.

RAINBOW QUILT. Need I say more? Lol. I love colorful quilts! And I need to work on my HST game and get better at matching points. 

I could see this one as a rainbow quilt as well, but it feels a lot more controlled and contained than the craziness that is in the HST quilt. 

Check out Sew Katie Did to see all of the awesome quilts she makes!

And I also found a pattern from one of the author's of Quilting Modern. It was actually supposed to be in the book but was cut before publishing. When I saw it on Sew Katie Did's blog, I loved it right away, but I agreed with what she said: It's an odd shape. I would definitely add another column at the very least. And as luck would have it, she shared a link so that the pattern can be downloaded for FREE! Woooooohooooo! I could see this quilt in the original turquoise and orange, or I could see switching out the orange for a red maybe?

So what do you guys think? I'm still up in the air on where to head from here. I want to challenge yet enjoy myself. I want to have fun picking fabrics (even if it stresses me out sometimes). And most of all, I want a quilt that I'll love to snuggle under. :)